1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a face recognition system and method based on adaptive learning, and in particular, to a system and method for recognizing the face of a continuously moving person in an environment of a movable robot.
2. Description of the Related Art
A plurality of face recognition technologies exist and mainly exhibits excellent performance in well-controlled environments, such as a uniform lighting state, a front face, and an expressionless face. However, conventional face recognition technologies have many limitations in a situation in which a robot, or a target person to be recognized by the robot, moves individually and freely.
In order to cope with these limitations, an effort to collect a plurality of images and recognize the face of a person has been made. However, this effort is mainly limited to the selection of a representative pattern using clustering technology, and thus it has not greatly contributed to the improvement of actual face recognition performance. Further, face recognition may not be satisfactorily performed due to a plurality of factors, such as the cases where a target to be recognized is placed under various types of lighting conditions, where the attitude or facial expression of a target varies, or where the face of a target varies with a lapse of time.